Plans for new Las Vegas Valley charter schools imperiled by pandemic

A Las Vegas charter school scheduled to open this fall will be delayed until the 2021-22 school year, while two other new schools say they’re struggling to attract enough students to open due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Las Vegas Collegiate, an elementary school in the Historic Westside in Las Vegas, will defer opening its doors to an inaugural class of kindergartners and first-graders to 2021, founder Biante Gainous said Friday at a meeting of the State Public Charter School Authority.

The school had asked in April for permission to move to a new facility in order to prevent a delay after its proposed location at the Agassi Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada became unavailable due to club budget constraints.

In a letter to parents Wednesday, the school said it would delay its start in order to “allow our nation the time needed to come through this current crisis, so that our scholars can start the 2021-2022 school year strong.”

Charter board members also pointed out the difficulties of educating early elementary students through distance learning.

Meanwhile, Explore Academy of Las Vegas and Girls Athletic Leadership School (GALS), both scheduled to open this fall, reported that they’re struggling to meet enrollment targets due to the effects of the pandemic, including limited marketing and in-person recruitment opportunities.

GALS Head of School Krista Yarberry also said families who have lost their jobs or been otherwise affected by the pandemic might not be thinking about educational options at the moment.

“When you’re thinking about a roof over your head and food, August seems a long way away,” she said.

GALS was originally approved to open with 135 students in sixth grade, but had just 20 students registered as of May 22. The school was authorized Friday to offer seventh-grade classes in order to enroll more students.

If at least 100 students aren’t enrolled by June 30, the school will not open as planned, it said in a letter to the charter authority.

Explore Academy was originally approved to enroll 330 students in sixth, seventh and ninth grades, but currently has only 100 applications. It asked the authority to allow it to add an eighth grade cohort as well, which the charter authority will consider at a future board meeting. If the school does not meet a minimum of 150 students by July 31, it will reconsider its plans to open, according to a report from the school.

The charter authority on Friday also approved a new charter application from CIVICA Nevada Career & Collegiate Academy, a K-12 career and technical academy set to open in 2021.

The board also heard an update to charter schools’ distance learning programs over the last quarter, which saw approximately a 98 percent attendance rate during each of the seven weeks of distance learning, with a slight drop to 96.6 percent from May 4-8, according to authority Executive Director Rebecca Feiden.

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.